GC 2007: Snakeball Hands-on

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We go on the hunt for a load of balls in a three-level demo of this multi-coloured PSN game.

By Rob Burman

Among the several PlayStation Network games available to play during the Games Convention was the rather curious Snakeball. This was the first time this psychedelic collecting game had been shown to the public but we were impressed with what we saw. Yes, it may not be the most innovative of titles - it's basically an updated version of the Snake mobile phone game - but it's certainly an enjoyable and addictive addition to the upcoming PSN line-up.

You play as a character that looks a bit like a futuristic astronaut and you ride around on something called a hoversnake. Your aim is to zip about neon-coloured arenas collecting coloured balls to score points, while avoiding obstacles that could kill you. The coloured balls you collect, stick to the back of your vehicle, until you have a long line of objects trailing behind you. Of course, this does look rather pretty but unfortunately it's also a hazard because the longer your tail is, the more likely it is to bash into one of the dangerous obstacles.

That's pretty much the basic premise for the entire game and was certainly the main focus for the three levels we played through. The first stage was just an introduction to the concept of gathering the balls and learning how to control the hoversnake. The snake itself is a speedy vehicle that skates across the surface of each stage and can be sped up or slowed down to a crawl. This is particularly handy when you're trying to avoid groups of obstacles, including explosives mines, or trying to stop yourself slamming into a wall - which instantly kills you.

After getting to grips with the simple controls, it was time to start completing objectives. During each level you're given tasks by a green UFO that drops mission cubes onto the playing field. Once you've collected the cube an explanation of what you must do scrolls along the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately the text was in German in the version we played, but we gathered fairly easily that the missions were - avoid the mines, collect the balls... and so on. However, we imagine the objectives become increasingly more difficult as you unlock new stages.

Alongside the mission cubes, the other important aspect of gameplay is the coloured balls that you collect. As well as running over them to pick them up, you must also deposit them in special holes that are dotted around the stage. Sometimes you can just drop them all in the same hole, although most of the time you're tasked with putting a specific coloured ball in its matching hole - to score some big points. This aspect comes into play more when you pick up a ball that explodes unless you drop it in the right hole within 10 seconds. Of course, you can be careful and only collect one at a time, or you can be more reckless and get a bunch of exploding spheres to score more points in a shorter time.

What's more some missions add an even trickier element to objectives that see the holes covered by mines. If you get too close the mines explode and you lose energy. So, instead of driving over them to drop off the balls you must shoot them into the pit from a distance. This is done by lining yourself up and firing a ball by pressing the square button, so you avoid the mine entirely. In the few levels we played this was fairly simple, however we imagine that in later stages more obstacles will be introduced that could hinder you shooting the balls around arenas.

Finally, on the subject of shooting, the last stage we played introduced a range of different weapons that could be attached to the front of the hoversnake. The first was a pretty basic laser that fired a stream of shots directly ahead and could be used to destroy some of the dangerous mine obstacles dotted about. However, another weapon collectible added a gun that fired two sets of bullets out from either side of the snake, whereas a third added missiles to our artillery. At the moment it's not clear exactly what the benefits of these latter weapons are but we wouldn't be surprised if moving enemies are added in later stages.

Of course that remains to be seen and we only managed to play through three very early levels. However, what we saw seemed fairly impressive. Snakeball keeps the gameplay nice and simple and we imagine it's going to be a blast in the eight-player online mode. Unfortunately there's no release date for it just yet but the version we sampled seemed fairly complete, so we wouldn't be surprised to see it popping up on PlayStation Network fairly soon.